The tablet question
Some of you have said you are not clear in your minds as to the difference between the Labour and PN proposals on tablets for children.
I’ve checked, and this is the situation.
1. The PN proposal is a natural continuance of its education/IT policy in schools over the last few years. The tablet is not a ‘free gift’ but is intended to be a main teaching/study tool. It will be given to children and teachers. The aim is have the educational texts children use transferred to digital form, so that they do not have to carry heavy materials about.
2. The Labour proposal for a tablet to all children in Year IV is not linked in to any educational policy and so functions purely as a free gift. ‘Buy Labour and get a free tablet if you have an eight-year-old at home’. They have already identified their brand and their supplier, as they have done with the power station, so the indications are that the deal came first and the proposal came later.
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Yes, they do seem to design their policies around the hardware they’ve been offered.
Call me when they’ll tell us we need to give the army a couple of Russian built tanks with a green rectangle on the side.
Taf int, for the protection and peace of mind of the residents of Swieqi.
Based solely on their own figures, at €1.5m for 4,000 tablets (€375 per tablet) they are technically giving more to each 8 year old in the country than how much they are proposing the majority of families will be saving on their electricity bills.
You can get a tablet for €80 including shipping from the UK, and it’s no toy. I know, every 8-year-old we know has one, because it was the must-have toy this Christmas.
So Labour’s proposal is basically a birthday present when the child turns 8 years old.
Looking at the positive side, it might prove to be a useful tool in building a new “generazzjoni socjalista” if they program it with some Malta Labour Party propaganda.
Tons of tablet lookalikes flooding the market at the moment. EC standards and all.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GcmEYBXdw8
If they can fake a jet fighter, no problem with a silly little tablet.
There’s nothing silly about them, they are 7″ androids mostly. The camera sucks a bit, but I suppose but you are better off giving a child an €80 gift than your own €600 iPad.
The only problem is most 8-year-olds can tell the difference even if they looked identical.
Thanks for the clarification Daphne.
Thought that too Ciccio, especially re history and literature classes.
(Daphne: Could you also spell out: under the NP proposal the tablets remain the property of the schools, such as with the EU funded laptops, correct? (Insured by the school etc.?)And the Labour proposal is just to State Schools, right?)
Also wondered, within the Labour context as explained above, why such a farcical ‘offer’ was not to all families, as with children’s allowance. After all, if it’s for keeps, shouldn’t all parents be offered this particular pre-election lolly under Labour?
What about us adults who might not have kids, don’t we get offered free phones, internet or other free benefits for our vote?
Isn’t a free gift in exchange for some expected favour also known as a bribe? Aren’t there organizational policies and code of ethics which forbid such practices? U ghadna lanqas bdejna..
In. Out. Cannot believe the indulgence in such shallow proposals.
But good of them to expose and reconfirm their operational tactics.
Thanks, Daphne.
When I see these PN proposals by PN I say what a visionary this prime minister is. This is what being the best in Europe means.
Perfect Daphne. This is what I was telling a friend about the difference between Labour and PN. The PN, despite its defects and errors, always had vision.
A vision implies, and involves, long-term planning, not just immediate or short-term (lasting a legislature or two) benefits that result in long-term losses.
A vision materialises in building-blocks, one leading to a higher level of consciousness or activity. Its implementation involves a lot of investment, the benefit of which will not be immediately apparent.
With Borg Olivier, immediately after Independence, the PN’s vision was to transform Malta from basically an agricultural and British Services base (it was already thundering then for the Dockyard) into a manufacturing and tourist centre.
During the 60s Malta experienced one of its greatest economic and social expansions with lots of manufacturing firms setting up shop and modern hotels sprouting around today’s tourist hotspots.
Mintoff disrupted all these plans and developments, as his eyes were focused elsewhere, i.e. a maverick foreign policy to attract international attention and a socialist economy and control at home, largely through nationalisations and outright ‘requisitions’.
With the PN under EFA, Malta was again allowed to breath, not only its regained rights and freedoms, social stability and conviviality, but a strong sense of moving (again) towards modernity.
A new power station, reverse osmosis plants to secure a continuous supply of water (today many don’t appreciate how scarce a commodity water and electricity was under Labour – and not just in the Sliema area; even in the south), a modern communications system (remember the 3 outdated telephone systems running concurrently?).
Under the PN we saw and experienced the opening up of the market (we had to obtain a permit for anything electronic). They launched Malta into the world-wide IT revolution (computers required a special permit together with a guarantee that no workers were to discharged – such a permit also applied, ridiculously, to simple PCs (Sinclair ZXs) – remember?
The University was re-founded and its doors opened to a much wider student population due to the introduction of stipends. Taxation was reformed, concurrently with the introduction of VAT. (Tax evaders were now made to pay as they are normally the ones with the highest purchases.)
All this, and more, was achieved without in any way sacrificing any of the much vaunted social benefits (hand-outs) introduced during Mintoff’s reign. On the contrary, they were enhanced and expanded to cover an increasing range of social and medical services.
Above all we were given a dream which would elevate us as a people, and as a country, to unprecedented national pride and economic opportunities – EU Membership and (today) a of the Euro Zone – despite the current difficulties.
Not only was Labour not part of these positive development but they obstinately and assiduously opposed them.: the power station, waste-recycling plant, the downsizing of the drydocks and its privatisation, the restructuring of Air Malta, the replacement of the polluting buses, just to mention a few.
During the last 2 legislatures Malta continued to diversify its economy and upgrade our standard of living mainly through an increase in better-paid jobs (the result of investment in education and re-training).
In the face of the financial (and economic) meltdown the PN in government managed to steer the country clear of the harsh difficulties (and suffering) experienced in nearby (and far-away) countries, including co-members in the euro zone.
We’ve had it so good that many of us don’t appreciate the successes achieved in the creation of jobs, education, health and the tourist sectors, all sectors which bore the brunt of the proverbial crisis surrounding us the world over.
Labourites will of course complain that I intentionally left out their projects (AirMalta, TeleMalta, EneMalta, BoV(?), Mid-Med, Children’s Allowance, etc). But this misses the whole point. It’s the long-term vision that counts.
If Labour’s projects were to be translated into a vision, then it turned out to be a nightmare. Social tensions, political violence of different types (physical and psychological), trampling of human rights, dubious experiments in education, dismantling of the university, corruption and nepotism, a serious lack of job opportunities (“Kelli bzonn kont kapaci nohloq jobs daqs kemm kont kapaci ngib il-flus.” – Mintoff)
Even the 22-month stint of NEW Labour was a flat fiasco with a mangled VAT-CET system, deep freezing of EU membership, a sharp increase (ironically) in energy bills, derailment of the Mater Dei project and gaping hole in government finances.
Joseph wants us to believe they’ve changed. (He can’t speak of New Labour again!) But if I take a look around them what I see are many of the faces that were responsible for all the Labour gaffes and suffering since the Mintoff days.
Do you blame me if I still don’t trust them? We’ve been deceived by Labour time and again, so how can I trust them with a fishy project to reduce my energy bill?
Excellent article.
You cannot, as simple as that.
Very well said! I agree with you 100%.
As an IT professional, the difference between the PL and PN policies regarding tablets seem quite stark to me.
PL are clearly using tablets as the proverbial carrot to dangle in front of the donkey’s nose. Obviously they have no clue as to their true educational value. To them they are just a cool gadget they can use to pull votes.
The PN on the other hand view the tablets as an integral part of the modern classroom, enabling a wealth of rich educational aids to make the students excited about their subject matter. Textbooks in electronic format, perhaps the ability to send in homework in electronic format directly to the teacher’s unit, integration with the class electronic whiteboard. These are things that we heard about only in sci-fi novels when I was in school.
The tablets are real assets that have the potential to grow alongside the students, serving as the ideal gateway to a wealth of knowledge and new avenues of communication and expression, potentially taking them from primary all the way through higher education.
The PN vision of an integrated electronic system of education is unbelievably exciting to someone like me. I just hope it is implemented in such a way as to realise its true potential.
I think it was on Iswed fuq l-abjad when Claudio Grech explained the development spin offs of the Egovernment system.
Basically the system architecture has sparked interest abroad, with foreign public officials looking into its potential.
He did say MITA is considering offering its knowhow and the relative software finetuned over the years to these countries and their public administration.
The PM was very specific to the importance that will be given to the contents, mentioning collaboration between the content producers, interface developers(a relatively new cluster on the island) and platform suppliers.
it could become cutting edge in future information technology, the market hasn’t as yet been tapped or developed to its full potential.
As Lawrence Gonzi rightly said, the tablet is just the instrument to what’s inside.
If we were to delve into the implications, one would hope the experience gathered, data regarding the child’s interaction, and what happens to human mental dynamics at such an early age, could be the scope of some interesting research into AI.
This being the result of a reciprocal pedagogical process.
Children have no barriers where it comes to discovering, interpreting symbols and redefining their meaning.
We can learn from them which avenues to explore.
I don’t see any major software and platform developer ignoring the value of that sort of information.
I doubt Labour’s tablet will be Apple or any other high street brand. Something anonymous made in China, naturally.
[Daphne – Not at all. There’s more sales commission on one with a good brand.]
Shall we invest in some Apple shares?
Do it right now. They are in freefall.
On Nasdaq down 10.25%.
Wait bit, now down 10.5 % and on a 35 % negative slope from the high.
He had a Mac on his desk in the background when he delivered his new year message.
I think he uses it as a desk ornament.
Normally pictures on desks face the desk user, probably the desk is never used.
And it seems Labour changed its electoral slogan , it was “Futur li Jghaqqadna”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfoT7n1-Ajc
What a joke. Futur li Jghaqqadna, based on a Passat Li Farrakna. The guys who ruined it for all are still there. WTF?
I suspect that desk was set up like that for the recording. One would not put such a huge lamp on a desk. The MacBook Air behind him was turned round so that the screen does not show, but I can’t understand why it was left there, maybe to show off.
Being the control freaks that they are Apple will be the natural choice.
He actually referred to it as an iPad in the most staged house visit in Maltese history – http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20130124/elections-news/muscat-faces-sibling-rivalry-over-tablets.454665
What struck me upon watching that video was Michelle entering the house and she couldn’t say anything apart from “Owkej, owkej?”
What happened to a simple “Kif inti?”.
She sounded like a chav, and Joseph did too what with his use of the same ‘word’.
What happens if he’s PM greeting foreign dignitaries, will they be using owkej?
Well yes, but how many people have you come across who refer to any tablet as an iPat?
Ask the same people where they keep their tablet and they will answer “in their medicine chest”.
You mean an ‘iPed’?
This a complete waste of money. Money that could have been better invested in the education sector.
Now school children are going to be even more distracted than before.
http://dailyedventures.com/index.php/2012/08/05/mark/
Or, so that the Priviteras of this world can understand, PN wants to give all students an educational tool, while MLP wants to bribe the parents of all eight year olds with an expensive toy.
How old are Joseph’s kids? Six or thereabouts, I reckon, so they’ll have to wait a year or two.
Yep – I picked as much up after my original question.
I knew I had to have missed something, only The Times was very short on detail to the point of making the PM appear to be contradicting himself big style.
Labour should be thinking instead in terms of Eye-Pads. We’re going to need them when the economy grinds to a halt.
And the ‘switchers’ will be wearing ‘Why-Pads’.
Maybe in-Nazzjonalisti will need Eye-Pads when they get beaten black-and-blue by the Labour thugs.
Will the tablet have ‘Joseph – Malta Li Rrid Nghix Fiha’ (Joseph – The Book) ready-installed on it?
It will probably play the Malta Taghna Ilkoll video on startup, and have the photo of Joseph Hobbit as a background.
Of course – that will become compulsory reading for students sitting for their O levels
I bet this is another contract deal with someone who is sponsoring the FENTESTIK electoral campaign.
Should we dare say that those big I-phones around will come to represent something in our future?
It is important to distinguish between the way the two parties are promising the tablet.
This is a link to a success story because the tablet was introduced as an educational tool and not just simply a give away
http://www.apple.com/education/profiles/flitch-green/#video-flitch-green
Apple’s efforts in marketing the iPad as an educational tool were exactly what came to mind when I read about the PN proposal.
So the Labour proposal has no educational intent?? Ma vai…
[Daphne – When will you understand this? Labour never gave a fig about education. Study its history, its stances on matters like EU membership and its present.]
Labour always worked against education, not in favour.
They know that most of their supporters are uneducated people and that many of those who do get an education vote PN.
So for the Labour Party it is more advantageous for the people to remain uneducated.
Labour’s educational intent is half baked, “nofs qalb” we say in Maltese.
First: it is for year four students only, and hoping someone will provide the €1.5 million.
Secondly, they didn’t go into the nitty-gritty of how it would work. They left out the teacher’s computer compatibility (PC) with that of the tablets.
This is precisely like Labour’s LNG terminal/power station proposal. They didn’t include quays, dredging, supply tanker availability, EIAs , and EU funds and safety audits.
That’s because the choice of hardware has been the determining factor.
Function, what’s that?
“First: it is for year four students only, and hoping someone will provide the €1.5 million.”
We know who will provide the 1.5 million, they are called taxpayers. A more pertinent question is who will collect the 1.5 million.
I was locked out of school by Labour. They actively tried to deny me an education.
Technology is not educational in itself. If it were, Malta’s FB community would be scintillating.
No amount of half truths and actual lies, will rewrite history.
Labour was the first party who fought for free schooling for all.
I think you should have a good look at your history book.
[Daphne – Rubbish. Free schooling for all predates self-government. And it had to be IMPOSED on the Maltese who thought it was a waste of time because their children should be earning money or working in the fields.]
I was talking on compulsery education.
[Daphne – So am I.]
But something more serious, What are we trying to do,turn our country with a future generation of spoilt brats?
What’s wrong if our children have to carry their books to school?
We are promising all this in the hope of winning some votes .Up to a few years ago we were advising parents not to let our children too long on their computers,because it could damage their eyesight, does this no longer hold water?
What our children need,execpt of course good education, is sport and lot of activities thah ensures a healthy body nd a healthy mind, not turn them in a lot of fairies.
Both proposals are rubbish. Can we please discuss SERIOUS political issues?
Any suggestions?
A government debt exposure of around 91% of GDP, for starters…
Where did you get that figure?
Government debt amounts to 75% of GDP. In addition, the government guarantees the debt of parastatal companies – another whopping 16% of GDP.
It’s in all rating agencies’ reports, if you read carefully enough.
So it’s obvious, no? Neither party will keep half the promises they’re making. At best they’ll freeze the capital expenditure for the coming years, something the Nationalists already did very quietly.
At worse, there’ll be a run on the various government bond funds and Joseph will be asking Frau Merkel for money before he knows it.
Very close Macduff…
It is Government’s (our rather OUR) public debt, together with the same Government’s guarantees, covering the debt/exposures of a multitude of other entities.
Ah, distinctions made, clarity provided.
Excellent, so shutting down Malta drydocks, restructuring Airmalta, getting rid of a public transport system dependent on subsidies, privatising sea Malta and packaging Enemalta’s debt isn’t tackling debt.
Nor is getting bashed around the head when the price of energy’s reflected in bills. I suppose the attempts to defeat government with repeated votes of no confidence are a better way.
It’s not enough, not half enough.
It’s true the country went through a recession and the government had to borrow money and increase spending, and I give credit to the Gonzi administration for doing that so well. But it should have seized that opportunity and restructured the expenditure, especially in social services.
It should have completed the pensions reform, cut benefits, rationalized student stipends and introduced small flat fees in certain areas of healthcare.
Ah, now I’ll get ostracized for just mentioning these.
What you mentioned, Jozef, involved unjustified golden handshakes or a huge injection of capital. I would have expected Austin Gatt, with his bullish attitude and curt statements, to stand his ground and send both the drydockers and the bus drivers packing, and not splurge 50 million euros on each!
Remember when bus drivers took to the streets terrorising a coachful of tourists in Floriana?
Or when Austin Gatt’s house was surrounded by pickets walking past the door through the night?
Or when the GWU held mass rallies threatening a general strike with Joseph in the crowd?
I do not think your suggestions are in any way blasphemy, but what you mention requires a responsible opposition which doesn’t look for the first difficulty to throw social partners at government.
What we’ve seen is stakeholders used for their plain isolated interests. Their absolutism is the spanner in the works. He who had promised working hand in hand with government, moderate and contribute to that which is essential.
Joseph didn’t even lift a finger when that Bencini expected to hog the MCESD simply because he couldn’t stick to the CMTU. The polemic disrupted it for years.
Remember the ridiculous objections during the St.Luke’s/Mater Dei emigration? It took ages.
We’ve had Joseph messing with low cost airlines, port workers, customs, even their contribution to renewable energy was a damocles sword hanging over the minister’s head.
Can you take someone seriously when they dismiss feasibility research as a waste of money if the results indicate we shouldn’t concentrate on wind energy?
If Gonzi went ahead as ‘arrogantly’ as they would have us believe, he wouldn’t have lasted the first year.
Blame it on the bloody press, who took it upon themselves to resign this place to a compulsory change in the name of a misguided notion of democratic alternation.
They screwed the agenda with their comments boards taking center stage.
And here we are now, with the same trying to play coy with Labour’s grand design, shocked at their own indolence and bad faith.
You’re right, of course. But then again, the Nationalist PR machine left much to be desired. Primarily, it grossly failed to explain much of the government’s decisions, giving Labour a wide berth and leaving its own supporters perplexed.
I get the impression the people knew the government was right all along, but the Nationalist Party failed, time and again, to galvanize the support.
Its energy policy is a case in a point. The Nationalist Party took the right decisions, failed to explain them and allowed Labour to dupe thousands with lies about high utility rates and the BWSC “scandal”.
This without Gonzi, Fenech or Gatt asking Joseph a single question about Labour’s interest in the Bateman offer. Not with the same tenacity, anyway.
As for the rabble-rousing by the GWU/drydockers/bus drivers marmalja, all that was needed was one show of force early on, and we wouldn’t have had any Neanderthals banging on Castille’s door, while the country is paralysed watching them.
They didn’t cause trouble when the army cordoned them off at the Valletta terminus, did they?
Again, the feeling on the ground was anger at the bus drivers/drydockers, not at the government. Gonzi and his ministers missed that, too.
But maybe I am a bit too right-wing for this country.
Still, I do believe there was a chance of Labour losing the next election had the Nationalists persistently shown what it really is. But, then again, with the whole cabinet having to look over its shoulder to fend off the backstabbers, it was nigh impossible.
Come on people are you serious?? How is either a good idea?
Don’t get me wrong the idea of having a school with tablet computers and no books, pencils, pen or paper sounds great but there are things to consider.
Tablets are still in their infancy as a technology and are obsolete within a few years will we be changing them often enough to be relevant.
Children have the tendency to lose and break things. What happens when this occurs, they just get new ones?
Games and other distractions are readily available. They will have to be charged, will there be outlets at each students desk? Or will the battery running out be the equivalent of forgetting your books at home?
Anthony,
Do you really think these considerations won’t be in the specs to which different suppliers will have to comply?
What worries you is if the platform were something off the shelf.
I am disappointed that both our political parties are resorting to very costly gimmickry in an effort to obtain votes.
Research has shown that investing in cutting edge technology without updating current teaching methodologies is simply a waste of money.http://www.nesta.org.uk/publications/reports/assets/features/decoding_learning_report
What I would like to hear from both our political parties is how they are going to tackle our unsustainable pension system and how they shall plan to curb our rising debt.
Are computers in classes gimmicks too?
Are you still stuck with the idea that ‘computers dull minds’?
Tablets will now come in two versions, blue and red.
We all know the effect of small blue tablets but I’ll be damned if I have any idea what the red tablets do. Maybe they’re just a placebo.
May I suggest you read the article above again. You don’t seem to have understood it. Read it again until you see the difference between the two parties.
He just couldn’t handle the fact that MyChoice.pn was #1 App … so he’s giving away tablets to 8 year olds so that Angry Birds can make it to the top instead.
There was already a pilot project going on in some schools with these tablets so the PL’s proposal was already a hijacked idea. The project was being evaluated before it ran in all schools.
Yep, however I believe the pilot project targeted Grade 5 students, so PL only hijacked half an idea or four fifths (depends on their calculator).
Joseph always disappoints when it matters.
Tutto fumo e niente arrosto – that’s Josephmuscat.com for you.
In both cases it seems to me that the parties are saying ‘vote for us and you’ll get a shiny tablet!’
Maybe in one case it’s a bit more nuanced than that, but you must at least arch an eyebrow at how this sort of thing comes up on the eve of an election.
[Daphne – In the case of the PN, it certainly hasn’t come on the eve of the election. It’s part of a long-term programme on the use of IT in education.]
Charles, I suggest a visit to one of the state school. Gone are the days of dusty blackboards and ABC charts.
The same can be said of church schools, and certainly of independent schools.
Children these days have been empowered with all sorts of tools, made available to all and sundry.
When I was a child our pc/tech (a Spectrum) came in parts hidden here and there in luggage or in some MP’s suitcase through the VIP lounge at Luqa airport.
Once again, thank you Eddie.
Did I understand correctly that this is to be financed in conjuction with the private sector?
Has anyone asked exactly what this means?
Is the private sector going to be asked to finance it?
This sounds dangerously like some form of concealed new tax. More clarifications please!
“The proposal to give around 4,000 schoolchildren in the fourth grade, a free tablet computer will be the first initiative and Dr. Muscat said that the government would consider expanding this proposal in the future. The initial cost will be around € 1 .5 million but the private sector will be asked to participate in this scheme.”
http://www.maltastar.com/…/20130124-labour-to-give-free-tablet-to-all-ye...
It smacks 100% like the old days of import licence permissions; scratch a minister’s back and get a licence.
This time round would be direct orders and so on.
Give the PL and its people some of what they want, and you will invest in your chances of getting a contract or two. How things never change with Labour.
All teachers already have a laptop funded by the EU. Muscat should have mentioned that.
Out of curiosity, I never knew this? Every teacher? And on what criteria?
Sorry Vanni but Primary School teachers were given a laptop each in the early 90s when computers were introduced in year 1.
Michael Falzon was minister of education.
@ Jo
Nothing to be sorry about, I was just curious, as I had never heard about this before. Many thanks for taking the time to answer.
Which goes to prove that the MLP run by Joseph has been taken over by Chinese interests.
First a power station of dubious source and now a tablet for everybody in school, from the cheapest source in the world, CHINA.
The integration syndrome is still alive in the MLP, looks like Joseph is in love with China.
My memory of Labour’s education policy was hiding my kids whilst driving them to private homes to carry on their education, because their schools were padlocked.
Oh, I remember. What still gets to me though, is that among us at those same hide-away classes there were Labour MPs’ children too. No wonder my mother was scared shitless in those days.
I was reading other comments boards and some smart guy said that tablets are more cost-effective than conventional books.
Probably a relative of the same smart guy who complained that the PN’s night tariff on power will force Maltese housewives to wake up in the middle of the night to wash their husband’s clothes (on timesofmalta.com).
If the two parties want to improve computer literacy and hard tech skills there’s an alternative to spending truckloads of money on gee-whiz tablets:
http://www.raspberrypi.org/faqs
I think this is a great little initiative and far more likely to inspire the kind of practical and creative thinking a small country needs to thrive.
“Issa dan il-Partit Modern Progressiv Liberali Moderat Laburista ghadu kif hareg ktieb fuq Joseph Muscat Mexxej Modern u li jrid lil Malta Taghna Lkoll gejjieni sabih, kif ma harguhx fuq dan il-marelli ta’ tablet” staqsietni t-tifla.
‘so the indications are that the deal came first and the proposal came later’
I am positive that issues like these will be secretly applied if Labour is in power. First the power station project and now the tablet initiative.
Who knows how many other projects and initiatives are being secretely prepared in this manner by the MLP headed by Joseph Muscat?
if it’s a done deal already, can someone investigate and find out who the supplier of Labour’s tablets will be? Name them
They are both an incredible waste of money. There is no excuse for such populism at the taxpayers’ expense. Shame on both of them for getting into this ridiculous arms race of who-can-waste-the-most-money. And this in a time when we should be turning to economic thrift.
Read this and see how ridiculous this ‘proposta’ sounds:
http://news.yahoo.com/malta-parties-fight-tablet-war-election-nears-141436513.html
You’re too hasty to jump to conclusions. The tablets would be a great tool if used wisely, same as the interactive whiteboards and the computers (were they a waste too?).
The crux of the matter is in the planning. Whilst the PL propose to gift grade 4 students with free tablets (because, obviously no one is impressed by a key-chain these days), the PN have already negotiated with authors and publishing houses to obtain the best deals for the students and know exactly what it will be used for.
And because it’s part of a serious study, and will be a beneficial introduction, it will be part-financed by the European Union through one of its funds.
This sums up the glaring difference between the parties. Whereas one is used to actually governing and so its plans must be well thought through and contain substance, the other is used to being a typical opposition, jumping on every bandwagon that comes its way, opposing anything and everything for the heck of it and not needing to come up with any real answers itself.
Which is why Labour will never be fit for purpose.
Ridiculous race? Labour’s building a power station and restricting the interconnector to half its capacity.
This clearly shows that Labour have no idea how to draw up policies.
They have no idea how to build a policy, flesh it out, make it interesting, useful, worthwhile and sustainable.
All they know is that the word ‘free’ sells so they build their policies around it. It’s like websites selling bogus software which put the word free in their address so that people searching for free software will come across it.
Cheaper utility rates (can’t give that away for free)
Free childcare
Free tablet computers
These are not policies but gifts.
The Muscat tablet proposal is taken straight from the Gaddafi text-book. Gaddafi was the first to sign up for the One Laptop Per Child initiative which later turned out to be a failure because not enough thought had been put into the proposal.
There were problems with financing and there were also questions about its educational value. The initiative was particularly criticised because, like Labour’s proposal, it didn’t have clear educational goals.
Below you’ll find the before and after of the story.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6040536.stm
http://www.hackeducation.com/2012/04/09/the-failure-of-olpc/
Thinking more about it, it’s not just this proposal which is very Gaddafi-centric but the whole political ideology.
Libya used to be notoriously cheap. Many people thought that the Arab spring would never erupt in Libya because Gaddafi kept people sweet with freebies and cheap goods.
What they failed to factor in is that there is more to life than getting stuff for free.
The Arab spring erupted in Libya anyway because people wanted the ways and means to fulfil their aspirations and live meaningful, free lives.
Joseph Muscat mentioned Samsung or iPad. What about other brands? Is this insinuating another direct order like the power station situation?
Samsung (a brand) or iPad (a model) when at the very least he should have been talking about operating systems (android or iOS).
But the beauty of it is that he said so that I don’t mention brands, as an advertisement. So why mention brands? Jackass.
The ony tablets Labour will give us for free are cyanide tablets
No need. We can always move to other European countries, no thanks to MLP (aka LP)
The Labour Party should call them the iPaid tablets.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbISYjQlbvc
This is doing the rounds on fb with satirical comments of course.
One helps an illiterate by providing him with specialized and individual help, which is what the PN has been doing for the past few years by providing students with learning difficulties with as many learning support assistants as necessary.
I simply cannot understand how a tablet will help the illiterate. All I can say is booooq.
On the other hand here’s hoping that maybe this famous tablet will help the Labour parents of those Year IV pupils to get some education, because some of the comments some Labour supporters write to spam the pages of the PN are appalling, stupid and and downright rude.
Watching another Labour joker on Bondi+ – a certain Ian Borg, mayor of Dingli, who has received lots of funds from the EU – the very EU his leader Joseph Muscat fought for Malta not to join.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20130124/elections-news/muscat-faces-sibling-rivalry-over-tablets.454665
“Sena ohra jkollok l-iPad, haw …,” says the PM in waiting.
“Taghmilx riklami,” his wife says.
So it’s an iPad? Was the call for interest published?
Who represents Apple (iPad) in Malta – more hedging of bets?
I think the MuscatPL’s proposal of tablet at age eight must have been a knee-jerk reaction to a leak of the PN’s proposal to be announced later on yesterday morning.
Will the tablets be available from the Pharmacy of Your Choice?
Labour – you couldn’t make them up: http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20130124/local/mp-fined.454660
Jonathan Brimmer who during Xarabank tried to fool us that he was a floater or a switcher, when in reality he was always a LABURIST PATENTAT had to say this about the Prime Minister today:
Jonathan Brimmer
Today, 20:28
“The Prime Minister should be ashamed to boast about the Dock 1 project, especially with the people of Bormla and the surrounding towns. That project, together with the Cirkewwa ferry terminal, is an example of this government’s incompetence and lack of respect to the citizens.
I can’t stand the way he talks as if the people of Bormla owe him something for this project. Incredible!”
It is you Brimmer, who is truly NOT credible.
Talking of children in this blog, a friend was telling me how Joseph plays on our emotions by telling us about “his dream” that the ceremony of the dismantling and eventual destruction of the Delimara power station chimney will be inaugurated by a child from Marsaxlokk.
He continued to argue that to be transparently fair with the children and residents of the south he should, by the same token, invite children from Marsaxlokk and Birzebbugia to inaugurate the foundation and opening of the LNG TANKS, close to his new power station – all in the interest of reducing our energy bills.
You know Muscat doesn’t have a clue what he’s talking about when he cannot even get the acronym right:
https://www.facebook.com/notes/partit-laburista-pl-fan-page-ufficjali/one-tablet-per-child/521263634570898
“Joseph Muscat spjega kif ser jitwaqqaf Fond Nazzjonali ‘One Tablet per Child’ (OPTC).”
But, why not OTPC? It seems the ‘stqarrija’ publisher can’t even read his/her own phrase.
The PL’s offer is simply a desperate vote fishing attempt with no serious vision at all. It clearly reflects their cheap way of doing politics.
In less than 24 hours since he announced his policy about tablets to 8 year olds, Joseph Muscat has already been called to resolve the first dispute. The case has been heard behind closed doors.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20130124/elections-news/muscat-faces-sibling-rivalry-over-tablets.454665
There you have it. Not to be taken lightly.
I bet my neck that the MLP will be using tablets at the counting hall. Only a couple of weeks to be proved right or wrong. Unfortunately it will be too late then.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20130124/elections-news/pn-to-explain-financing-of-electoral-pledges.454668
“They have already identified their brand and their supplier” – but it should be an open tender.
Franco Debono is in negotiations with the MLP to run on its ticket as a star candidate instead of Robert Abela.
He has one condition though – that the MLP promises a tablet to each Form II student.
Joseph will soon be telling us that Sildenafil Citrate tablets will be included in the list of free medicines available from the POYC, without “Il-kartuna s-safra” .
Those infamous Daleks peppered around the country will become Arrigo dispensing machines for condoms and rosary beads.
All you have to do is to swipe the biometric ID card and take your pick.
Joseph wants to tell all and sundry that Labour is Progressive, Liberal, Moderate and above all, SAFE.
Try to beat that one, Lawrence.
I think that the whole idea of giving any tablet is crazy.
I teach ICT in a private ICT school and it’s a problem getting even 18-year-olds to stay off Facebook during lectures, let alone younger children during lessons.
Can you imagine with a tablet?
How could you possibly tell what they are doing?
I often find myself having to disconnect the internet from the classroom computers and even that is not enough as they have smart phones.
From experience, I can also tell you that they will break them, lose them and generally mishandle them.
They do this with their own stuff let alone with a free gift.
As teachers, we already have problems getting students to pay attention in class.
Tablets will simply make this even more difficult.
The idea of using them so that students will not have to carry heavy books is a good one at first glance, but how is it going to be possible to restrict their use at least during class? If you disable wifi, they will use their smart phones as wifi hot spots and Facebook away during class.
Children in junior school do not have cell phones. Also, with a teacher and an LSA in class, it is not that hard to supervise the students.
There are ways of restricting what apps the children can use through software. If they won’t do that then that’s sheer stupidity.
Dalghodu kienu qed iwahhlu il-billboards il-godda.
Sa fejn naf jien, Mr Joey qal li ha jaghti tablet lil min qieghed year 4 biss. Izda il-billboard qieghed jghid mill-year 4 biex jaghti l-impressjoni li ha jiehdu kulhadd.
Bil-proposta tal-Labour issa kull min is-sena id-diehla ha jkun year 5 jipprova joqghod repeater halli jiehu tablet.
Two fish out of the water. The Muscats look very uncomfortable around normal folk.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20130124/elections-news/muscat-faces-sibling-rivalry-over-tablets.454665
“Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure about the former.” Albert Einstein (1879 – 1955)
It is high time that whenever and whoever, comes out with a so called ‘goodie’, he/she be compelled to give a thorough breakdown how much it will cost the taxpayer, and just as important, exactly from where (i.e. which taxes or specific expense savings) such costs will be financed.
[Daphne – The prime minister said quite clearly yesterday that the Nationalist Party’s actual programme will include the financials.]
Ah yes the financials! Do you have a LOL button to press?
[Daphne – No. I do not operate in the world of chavdom. LOL button indeed.]
I want to ask a question to Muscat.
I have two children – one will be in year 4 next year and the other one will be in form 1.
What do I tell my older child? That he’s not getting a tablet because he’s too old?
According to The Times: “It was a light-hearted moment but Joseph Muscat this evening faced the first of many prospective ‘squabbles’ between siblings over a proposal to give eight-year-old students a free tablet. When visiting the Mifsud family in Kalkara this evening, the Labour leader turned to the seven-year-old boy and told him that he will be getting a tablet next year. The boy’s father jokingly remarked that the proposal would cause friction between his younger son and the eldest, who is 11 years old.”
VOTE PN Mr Mifsud and there will not be any squabbles between your children. The PN’s promise is visionary not like the PL’s.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20130124/elections-news/pn-to-explain-financing-of-electoral-pledges.454668
Watch the clip on timesofmalta.com. How pathetic can our PM get? And not just because he refers to tablets as iPads (as if all tablets are iPads) …
What utter rubbish! But do you really believe what you write, or is it just convenient to write what you write because there’s a vote in a few weeks time?
One big difference in the way the two parties look at this issue is that while the PN considers a tablet a tool to learn various academic subjects like languages, history, social studies, etc, for the PL it is an end unto itself and the only excuse for giving it to children is to make them computer literate (they use the more pompous and incorrect ‘IT literate’ ).
Any parent would tell them that most children already know the basics of using computers and do not need to be given a tablet for that and at any rate, computers were already introduced in primary schools years ago.
If Labour really wanted to improve computer literacy in the country they should have targeted older persons, especially unemployed and under-employed ones, rather than children.
Labour said that their half-baked tablet giveaway will cost Eur1.5 million.
Proportionately the PN’s scheme would cost Eur25 million.
I would say that for a party in government which has always invested especially heavily in education, Eur25 million is pretty much par for the course.
Of course the LP would never “waste” all that money on education.
[Daphne – But billboards, books about the great leader, and rock-star stage set-ups are another matter.]
Which exactly is Year IV? How old are these children? I believe that classes differ in different schools, such as Grades and Forms. Why haven’t the classes been standardised?
One can buy an IPad from Tancred Tabone’s business outlets.
http://www.forestals.com/product-list?catid=268&br=316
Now where did I see his name last?
Owen Bonnici said this morning that the PN copied this electricity, electrical, sorry, electoral proposal from PL’s book.
I think Joseph ‘is in’.
Oh really, I haven’t heard Evarist or Owen expanding on anything about their use except that the PN’s proposal is too ambitious. Not once did they refer to what will be inside.
One telling statement was that they intend to provide inetractive libraries in schools. If that’s the case, why the tablet? Isn’t that the duplication of hardware?
It will be interesting listening to Labour’s arguments, unwittingly giving away their constraints, uncovering some juicy details related to the particular model they have in mind.
Konrad Mizzi all over again. He was IT, should know something.
May I humbly suggest to both parties that when they think up these freebies, the party that wins will foot the bill out of its own party funds and leave us taxpayers in peace.
It was ironic to watch Owen Bonnici hassle Simon Busuttil this morning on TVAM, because Simon did not have the costings for the tablet proposal with him, while his party stubbornly refuses to publish its costings for the much vaunted new power station proposal.
Labour – what a bunch of amateurs.
Ghandi computer. Kif nuzah? Viva l-lejber viva l-lejber Hej Hej
So today we learn that the PN’s proposal re: tablets amounts to almost EUR 24m for tablets.
I remain open to persuasion on how this represents a sensible expense.
I think Labour should start with its own websites, which use horrible grammar and syntax. If you want a laugh check the candidates section on Labour’s election website.
Tal-biza.
I liked Claudio Grech’s presentation. In particular “Edukazzjoni fis-sod”.
Will Labour’s free tablets be marked JOSEPHMUSCAT.COM, like those free copybooks given out in state schools in the Golden Years, with Agatha Barbara’s face on them?
That’s it. I’ve had it. I have officially decided that timesofmalta.com is off-limits for me, at least until the election is over and done with.
I can’t deal with all the apes posting drivel on that sorry excuse for a comments board any more.
I’ve been teaching for the last 12 years.
I’ve seen a lot of changes in these years but believe me right now the educational system is going right down the drain. The person who envisaged colleges, no streaming etc should reflect about his actions.
Now I would say that tablets are really not needed in our schools. We need clear guidelines and help to defeat bullying and bad behaviour. Both parties should reflect on this. This tablet thing is a nice gimmick by both parties.
To all pn supporters may I also say that Gonzi does not respect all of his promises. He promised laptops to be changed every 5 years. Now as you might know only reimaging was done after 5 yrs and now we have very slow laptops running complicated software.
[Daphne – Going by your writing and thought processes here, I’d say that if education in Malta really is going down the drain as you claim, then it’s because of the unbelievably poor quality of the teachers. But then, you can’t possibly be one. And if you are, God help us.]
23 million for tablets…rubbish parties led by rubbish politicians…. yes sure very serious…more like a bribe paid out of public money.
What about the 9,10,etc year olds.
My take on the tablet issue is that the Labour Party got wind of a bit of this PN proposal, perhaps through a leak before it was announced, and they quickly announced a hasty proposal of their own at an earlier press conference.
I trust there are not still people doing harm to the PN from within after Franco, JPO and Mugliett.
The PN’s proposal carries a couple of details which they missed though.
The development of the elearning platform, and the unimaginable ramifications of having teachers wired to students.
The possibility, certainty of involving the IT industry in the development of the system itself.
The knowhow gathered to be shared with other governments, research institutions and the industry.
The development of human capital an industry in itself.
I see a major divide between Labour and the PN.
The former think we have some way to go, the latter happen to be aware we’ve become relevant players.
I don’t see Evarist giving a toss about private enterprise collaborating where it matters to set the pace.
His legitimate concern is to the limits of an incongruous piece of standard kit.
Of such people is this country made. The PM was right yesterday, there’s loads who haven’t a clue what’s going on.
Why go for a top of the line tablet? There are much cheaper products, certainly good enough for children, at half the price or less.
By mentioning the brand name it would appear that a deal has been struck.
Very funny, do you really believe yourself? You see everything blue, please write something real without being so biased please.
C. Fenech, “everything blue” includes the PL, of course.
L-iskop mux biss li jehfiep il-piz ghal-istudenti, izda li ghodda teknologika tkun parti mill-hajja ta’ kuljum ghac-cittadini zghar sabiex verament il-pajjiz jimxi l-quddiem u jkun kompetittiv illum u ghada.
Did you read this article?
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20130125/elections-news/tablet-talk-under-labour-s-dome.454787
Muscat’s audience thinks that tablets are pills, so he had to explain what a tablet is.
And these are the people who will decide our fate in the elections.
I have only one concern. Muscat has very subtly veered the public’s attention from the power station to tablets. We haven’t heard anything the last few days and Konrad Mizzi is now hidden.
It turns out that some Laburisti don’t even know what a tablet is.
“Labour leader Joseph Muscat, who formed part of the audience, took it upon himself to give an oversimplified definition of a tablet to remove misconceptions among older people who were left questioning whether this was a medicine:
“A tablet is a flat thing that one can touch and write on.”
“It’s not a pill”
“It’s a computer… like a frame with a glass surface that does marvellous things – John Bencini” http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20130125/elections-news/tablet-talk-under-labour-s-dome.454787
Here’s another brilliant observation from an internet comments-board:
“Gonzi Pn thinks we are BATS. he wants us to sleep in the morning and do our daily chores at night to save electricity. I guess our birth rate will go down now.”
The absurdity of Labour: giving a tablet to all pupils is impossible or inadvisable, but taking a full power station, LNG terminal and storage tanks from an idea to completion and commissioning, at a cost of Eur600 million, is possible and advisable.
The majority of teachers and pupils already own an android smartphone or an iPhone, so using an iPad/tablet based on the same OS should be a piece of cake. I don’t see a huge learning curve here.
There are some digital books/apps which make traditionally boring subjects, such as chemistry and physics, more appealing to children.
John Bundy had an ex-headmistress reminiscing about the difficulties encountered with pocket calculators.
Evarist kept nodding, mela ahseb u ara. Qisu buznanna.
Skond John Bundy u kkonfermat minn Joseph minn taht it-tinda issa, it-Tablets tal-Labour (Malta l-ewwel u qabilha l-poter)se jkunu bl-Ingliz u tan-Nazzjonalisti bil-Malti.
Minn hawn nindunaw min hareg biha l-ewwel ghax jemmen fiha u min harigha ghal-konvenjenza elettorali tal-voti (ghax ma’ setax ikellem lil-pubblikaturi Maltin kif ghamlu tal-PN)
Nifhem li huwa possibbli li jistghu ikunu wkoll bl-Ingliz ghax pubblikazzjonijiet diga jezistu mad-dinja kollha b’dan l-ilsien, m’hemmx bzonn ftehim ma’ Gonzi jew Joseph ghal Ingliz.
Guz, “Malta taghna lkoll” kif tghidha bl-Ingliz “Malta is of all of us” ?
Milli qed nara xi hadd bela’ xi lixka “hook line and sinker”!
Bilhaqq : Issa “dejjem-tard” Joseph se jerga’ jasal tard u wara li jkun ikkopja u zied xi haga minn tal-PN u sa kemm japprovahulu l-ezekuttiv , tal-PN ikunu hargu kemm se jiswew il-proposti taghhom u jaqtugh b’cima fit-tellieqa elettorali. Diga flejtu minn fuq l-Internet.
Innutajtu li tal-Labour hadd ma hareg jixli lil Gonzi li t-tali wiegheda numru xyz ma wettaqiex?
So that all Labourites may understand, let me use my mother tongue: id-differenza dwar it-tablets hija semplici hafna.
In-Nazzjonalista qed ikomplu jestendu l-imhabba u l-impenn taghhom lejn l-edukazzjoni tal-poplu Malti u Ghawdxi kollu, filwaqt li l-Parti Laburista qed jirrepeti l-politika tal-qamel u tat-tqancic li dejjem spikkaw matul l-istorja tal-biki tieghu, fejn dejjem baghbas kemm felah fl-edukazzjoni.
Stennew, u allahares qatt, ikollna naraw.
Both parties are promising the world and everything in it. As I see it, its getting ridiculous and there are still 6 weeks to go.
The tablet question(s):
Who the hell decided to mix fragile objects with primary children? Did this person imagine such tablet in a child’s satchel, on the floor, on a bus?
It won’t last an afternoon.
The proposal should’ve been aimed at much older children, at least starting from 12-year-olds, forsi tvinci gimgha il-povra tablit.
This comment is probably not related to the topic but I feel compelled to ask – what experience of management does journalist/MEP/leader of the opposition Joseph Muscat have to manage a country?
Perplexed.
The tablet question: With labour back in government – Prozac tablets.
Prozac – and Nexium tablets.
A WELL educated person will never (repeat never) vote for this crowd of spiteful people